


Compromised

by nessundorma345 (wastrelwoods)



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe
Genre: Explorations of various ships, F/M, Individual warnings in chapter notes, Lots of Frostiron though, M/M, Multi, Vignettes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-15
Updated: 2012-11-15
Packaged: 2017-11-18 18:22:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/564045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastrelwoods/pseuds/nessundorma345
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A miscellaneous jumble of broken people and their broken relationships. Love is for children; what they have is something much stronger.</p><p>(Vignettes, mostly unrelated)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Compromised

He is not a soldier. He is not a fighter, a banner for sacrifice or sentiment. He is not a hero. When he hears the word hero, he thinks of the sandwich. Then he thinks about the people he knows that are heroes, i.e. not him. 

Like Steve. There can be no doubt that Steve is a hero. He's the hero. He's a righteous prick that always puts everyone before himself. He's a great friend, and he isn't afraid to call the rest of them out on their crap.

Or Thor. The guy's a freaking alien prince god thing, for crying out loud. And he can be pissy, sure, but he's got nothing on his brother there. No, Thor's a clean-cut, white bread and big biceps hero. He's unbelievably stupid, too. In a nice way.

Even Bruce is a hero, though he has a dark side. Clint is a hero. At least, they can't tell any different. Clint's a mysterious sort of hero. Natasha, she's probably redeemed herself ten times over by now. Also she could kick all of their asses to kingdom come if he says any different, plus she does hero things. Just not in the traditional sense.

Well. If things are gonna be like that, maybe he is sort of a hero. I mean, he had saved the entire city by laying down on the wire (I think i'd just cut the wire) and taking that nuke through the portal to the space between. So not in the traditional sense. 

Except no, because heroes have moral compasses, right? And no one with even half a sense of right and wrong would be in bed with their greatest enemy. If he had a moral compass, it would point south. No, actually it would make up a brand new skew direction and point that way. He's not even a soldier. He's a consultant who blows things up for a Bluetooth-obsessed top secret government organization. That he probably wasn't just supposed to mention.

And he's a far cry from sacrifice and sentiment. Sentiment. It's a word that Loki always carefully skims around, his favorite subject to pointedly not discuss. And he's not about to start naming feelings and organizing pitying sob-fests. So they both dance around it, and spend nights (and days) in a mad tangle of limbs, neither willing to admit that they'd give a lot more than they ever imagined wanting to give to keep doing this. 

It sort of started when Tony was a hero, but a hero for the wrong side and he sat and watched Loki and pointedly turned off his com and Loki stared back with red blood staining his lips, nodded, and disappeared. It sort of started with less fierce battles, with Loki staring at Tony and pointedly firing a bit too far to the left, and Tony staring back and quirking a smile. And it sort of started in many fractured moments all at once, as Tony poured the decanter slowly and met Loki's eyes, as he gracefully and gingerly accepted the glass, as the alcohol burned down his porcelain throat and Tony's moral compass went completely haywire.

Oh. That's right. He didn't have one.


End file.
